I am
disturbed by recent happenings in my state, Kano . In fact
my heart bleeds. Please do not mistake my sadness on the burning issues
concerning perennial lack of portable water or dilapidated infrastructure,
neither on the astronomical increase in illiteracy level occasioned by the
poorly articulated state government educational policy, nor on the
comatose healthcare system in my state. Are my people not bothered by the
refuse sited in every nook and cranny of the state? No, but they could not
dare say it in public. Why?

The
answer is simple: Today nobody has the right to say anything against the
state government, because almost all the streets urchins (known in local
parlance as yandaba) are allegedly in the government payroll, or at least
as their conducts suggest. They maim and kill at the slightest
provocation.

This
scare tactics has made Kano people to
suffer in silence for the past five years of Shekarau's misrule.
Correspondents of the nationally dailies , -majority of whom incidentally
happened to be from the southern part of the country, are allegedly being
constantly threatened to either keep their mouth shut or face the wrath of
government sponsored yandaba. One should not be surprised if members of
the fourth estate of the realm submitted themselves to blackmail so easily
because I may do the same if I were in their shoes. It is obvious that
intimidation and blackmail are invariably part of the tools employed. The
scenario of state ignited yalwan-shendam reprisal where the governor
Ibrahim Shekarau himself addressed the crowd of idle youths,
and thus the consequence, will leave nobody in doubt to what limit he can
go to whip up sentiment for his personal vendetta.

Thisday
newspaper is the latest victim of such blackmail by the Kano state
government. It has sinned by scoring His Excellency below average in its
recent first year assessment of his second term in office. The next thing
that happened was that officials of the self acclaimed caliph Umar
declared a holy war on Thisday. Some of the half educated
officials of the state Government went on air to whip up religious
sentiment in the most irresponsible manner. Things like that are quite
irreligious, undemocratic, unhealthy, and unethical. They have displayed
total lack of respect to the yearnings and aspirations of Kano citizens.
It is a clear show of dictatorial tendencies and rural aristocracy. It is
a brazen betrayal of the system that strives to protect the common man.
This is negative in all sense of human discipline unless if we are
barbarians. Anybody ready to join the democratic fray should be tolerant
to criticisms; otherwise he has no business in the game.

History
is always the final judge. I sensed this is going to happen when it came
to the fore that Kano was burning sequel to the result of well
orchestrated rigging of the local government election. The government
watched the many citizens die and properties worth billions lost, in order
just to snatch the right of the commoner.

The
beauty of democracy is freedom of speech and association. Even the mighty
ones like President Yar'adua receive, on constant basis, heavy dose of
criticism but he never orders his troops to invade or detain anyone for
that matter. That alone is the kind of maturity expected from a descent
leader. However, this is what vagabonds will find difficult to
accommodate.

Sigmund
Freud is actually right in his theory of psychoanalysis. When something is
wrong with the anal stage of development, one will be seen manifesting
bizarre symptoms. While serious governors were busy working out plans to
improve the lot of their people, ours was networking matrimonial
relationships in flagrant display of acute affluence. What tangible
achievement do you expect from a man suffering acute re-feeding syndrome
which only breeds reptiles of the mind.

The power
drunk governor was so blinded that he was said to have recently sent Shehu
Yusif Kura to USA to source for the opinion of international community on
his 2011 presidential ambition. Imagine it was the state that foots the
bill of the trip which runs in to millions. I can not figure out how he
intends to deal with intricacies of national politics since his fanaticism
is fast becoming an obsession. May be if he were the president all the
national dailies would be closed down for daring to report government's
wrongs. Who will even trust a megalomaniac (that could not handle an
average state with discretion and dexterity) with a national assignment,
as being canvassed by the demented ANPP leadership? While he was busy
dreaming of an empire, Kano people were having a terrible nightmare of
poor security of lives and properties.

In
the past few years Kano was the pivot of the North. Industries were
functioning and business was flourishing. Alas! That was then. What now
replaces the glory is massive closure of factories and shops as evidenced
by the growing number of jobless citizens that are joining the caravan of
Almajirai across the streets of the state. There is no sentiment in this,
the Federal Government gives every state its own share of the federation
account and visionary ones use their resources to provide sound atmosphere
for industrial growth. They face the same problem of epileptic power
supply but they never rely on federal government to spoon- feed them with
ideas and resources all the time. Their think- tank is working round the
clock to meet the demands of the citizenry and none of these states blame
federal government for their failure except Kano . When the news filtered
that excess crude reserve would be shared and Kano will get over 20
billion extra money, any average intelligent man could predict the type of
wasteful projects we are going to witness in the next couple of months.

It is
high time now a word of caution should pass across to Shekarau. I call on
all media houses, civil society organizations and Nigerian union of
journalist to beam their searchlight on the Kano state government. They
should condemn in serious terms, the act of deliberate smear campaign to
stir up religious crisis in the state by the government. Because today, it
may be only Thisday newspaper that is affected by this state brigandage
but who can guarantee what might happen in the future if these excesses
are left unchecked. I believe taking this stand would send forth a tiny
ripple of hope that could sweep up the mighty walls of oppression and
injustice.